The National Living Wage (for those aged 21 and over) and the National Minimum Wage (for those of at least school leaving age) change on 1st April every year. The current rates and those for the new year are:
Please see more details from HMRC here.
If you operate a salary for an employee who is not a director of the Limited Company, it is important to review their working hours and rate paid, to ensure they do not fall below the National Minimum Wage and the National Living Wage rates. Please get in touch with your dedicated accountant to discuss this in more detail if you are not sure.
You can also perform an annual calculation by taking the total number of hours worked per week by the employee and multiplying by the number of weeks in a year. Then, divide this number from the annual salary before any deductions.
For example, if an employee has a gross salary of £38,532 and works 36.6 hours per week, the hourly rate is £38,532 / 1,903.20 hours (36.6 hours x 52 weeks ) = £20.24 per hour (round down when calculating for minimum wage).
Nice to know: According to the Office for National Statistics, the average actual weekly hours of work for full-time workers (seasonally adjusted) to November 2025 was 36.6 hours per week, and the average full-time salary in the UK in February 2026 based on weekly earnings, was £38,532, an increase of £1,872 on last year’s total of £36,680 calculated to January 2025.
Please get in touch with your dedicated accountant to discuss this in more detail or email payroll@cleveraccounts.com, if you would like to make changes to your employees rates of pay, in April 2026.
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